– 78-year old retired CIA officer Normand Hodges has made an astonishing confession on his deathbed. Not only did he admit to murdering Marilyn Monroe, he also claimed that 36 more victims had died at his hands. Why? They were a “threat for the security of the country.”

Hodges was employed as a top-level operative at the Agency and maintained his position for several decades. He claims that over the course of his career, the CIA often used him as a hitman. His objectives were simple: eliminate those who are viewed as threats to national security.

Between 1959 and 1972, Hodges carried out 37 assassinations, ordered because “the CIA had its own agenda.” His targets were journalists, political activists and union leaders but he also disposed of a few scientists and artists whose ideas had been labeled ‘dangerous’.

But his most important victim was none other than America’s first major sex symbol, Marilyn Monroe. Hodges says she was his first and only female victim.

We had evidence that Marilyn Monroe had not only slept with Kennedy, but also Fidel Castro,” said Hodges. “My commanding officer, Jimmy Haynworth, told me she had to die, and that it had to look like a suicide or an overdose. I had never killed a woman before, but I obeyed orders…I did it for America! She could have transmitted strategic information to the communists, and we couldn’t allow that! He had to die! I just did what I had to do!”

A trained sniper and martial arts expert, Hodges said his experience proved valuable to the CIA. But he claims he didn’t work alone. He was part of a five man operative cell that was called whenever political assassinations were required.

The FBI placed the elderly man under custody while an investigation looks into his claims. However, it looks like a rough road lies ahead of the case, due to the lack of written files on covert operations, while the fact that most of the agents involved are already dead represents another hurdle.

A major link in the chain is missing as Agent Hodges’ CO, Major James Hayworth died of a heart attack back in 2011. Two of his ‘colleagues’ are now deceased and a third is presumed dead after going missing in action in 1968. Hodges himself is in very bad health and will probably die before the investigation reaches a conclusion.

So what are we looking at here? The ramblings of an old man or the solving of one of the twentieth century’s most famous forensic cases? Is this even a veritable piece of news? That remains to be seen.